Community Relations Officer Uses Good-friend Attitude

June 22, 1994|By Sara Pearsaul. Special to the Tribune.

The work of the neighborhood relations division of the Chicago Lawn police district can touch on just about any aspect of community life.

That includes dealing with calls regarding crimes and other complaints, making educational presentations to school classes and civic groups, working with neighborhood organizations, or helping with projects that benefit the community, says officer Bob Keim, one of the six members of the neighborhood relations staff at the station, 3515 W. 63rd St.

They have a lot of ground to cover, he notes. The district covers 23 square miles and a population of 250,000 in nine neighborhoods that include West Lawn, Clearing and Chicago Lawn.

"We try to help people with all non-criminal matters and criminal matters that are non-emergency situations. They need police service, but they don't need it right away," says Sgt. Robert Wagner, who supervises the neighborhood relations work.

Keim estimates that he handles about 30 calls a day. "Normally, we get a call after the crime. What they want is special attention or a special watch put on the beat car so that the same crime doesn't occur the second time. We have the time and the resources to make the follow-up callbacks."

Calls may include complaints about gang or drug activity or, in a recent situation, a litter of stray kittens in a resident's back yard. He called an animal control team of the Police Department to pick up the kittens and take them to a shelter.

Keim has come to know the neighborhood well. He has spent 25 of his 26 years with the Police Department in the Chicago Lawn District. The other year was spent in the Wentworth District on the South Side.

"I've been out here so long that I'm working with the second generation of people. It seems to me that when mothers and fathers were involved in block clubs or crime-awareness organizations, their kids, brought up in this environment, also became aware of their community and joined these organizations."

He remembers youngsters who were about 10 when he first began to work in the area. Now they "are 30, and I'm still here," Keim says, laughing.

Keim has many memories from the years he has spent in the district, and not all of them are pleasant. "You see a lot of things, and there are a lot of things you can never forget," he says.

One of those was the crash of a United Airlines plane near Midway Airport in 1971. He was the first emergency personnel on the scene. He arrived within 45 seconds of the call to find the plane in the middle of the street and buildings on fire all around. He called for emergency help and pulled a man to safety from under the tail of the plane.

Another painful memory is of a fatal accidental shooting of a 12-year-old boy by his 13-year-old cousin. The boys were playing with a loaded gun they had found in the 12-year-old's house.

"When I arrived, the 13-year-old was over the 12-year-old with his hand on his chest to try to administer first aid and stop the bleeding," he says.

Keim, 48, grew up on Chicago's South Side and graduated in 1962 from Lindblom High School before studying business at the now-defunct Wilson Junior College. "I went into the Army in '65 during the Vietnam War and came out and took the police test," he says. "Within two months, I was in the Police Department." He began training at the Chicago Police Academy in October 1968.

His late father was on the police force for 29 years. "I think it was one of the proudest days of both our lives when I graduated from the police academy and we were standing there together," Keim recalls.

Keim and his wife, Judith, lived for 20 years in the Ashburn neighborhood in the Chicago Lawn District before moving to the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side. They have two children: Kristen, a junior studying nursing at Northern Illinois University, De Kalb; and Robert, a sophomore this fall at Marist High School on the Far Southwest Side.

Keim has seen some changes over the years in the Chicago Lawn District. One of the most alarming is the emergence of gangs, he says. To help the community address that problem and other concerns, Keim and the neighborhood relations staff work with community groups such as the Southwest Parish and Neighborhood Federation, which mobilizes community resources for tasks including organization of block clubs and neighborhood watches.

Bob Fredrick, who with his wife, Doreen, live in the Chicago Lawn District and is active on the federation's anti-crime committee, says that Keim attends committee meetings and offers solid advice. Keim and other police are "very helpful in their ideas," says Fredrick, who this year formed an organization, Citizens on Patrol, to deter crime in the area.The group has volunteers on the streets at night to call 911 whenever they see anything suspicious. "(Keim) willingly shares information that he has with us," he says.

"He's very honest, very sincere," Doreen Fredrick says of Keim. "He's always available for you."